Tuesday, March 14, 2017

The DC Comics Fall 2017 trade paperback and hardcover collection solicitations bring with them a new expanded edition of the DC Rebirth Omnibus, an omnibus collection of the Grayson series, a long-awaited collection of Aquaman: The Atlantis Chronicles, and much, much more!

Among a list filled with lots of legitimately cool stuff, we see omnibus collections of both Justice League International and the Justice League "Detroit Era"; a second Batman: Knightfall omnibus (getting closer and closer to completion); more trades of Mark Waid's Flash and Legion of Super-Heroes, Marv Wolfman's Deathstroke, Chuck Dixon's Robin, Peter David's Supergirl, Mike Grell's Green Arrow, and John Ostrander's Suicide Squad -- plus the first collection of Karl Kesel's Superboy and Jim Balent's Catwoman; and deluxe Rebirth hardcovers of Batman, Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Harley Quinn, Justice League of America, Nightwing, Suicide Squad, Superman, Action Comics (Vol. 2 already!), and Wonder Woman.

A couple quick things I've noticed:

• Whereas the paperback collections of Batman, Nightwing, and Detective all omitted their "Night of the Monster Men" crossover issues, the deluxe hardcovers include them. That's interesting and I think a legitimate way to handle the crossover tie-ins in Rebirth -- pull them out to their own collection alongside the paperbacks, but include them inline for true deluxe edition completists. I'll be curious to see if this pattern continues.

• Case in point, the third Superman and Action Comics Rebirth volumes stop just short of the "Superman Reborn" crossover issues, collected here in their own hardcover; however, we see that the deluxe hardcover Action Comics Vol. 2 collects its own "Superman Reborn" issues sequentially with the rest.

• The word "re-cut" or "recut" shows up 6 times in these solicitations, in regards to Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner Vol. 1, JSA by Geoff Johns Book One, Invisibles Book Two, Sandman Mystery Theatre Book 4, Superboy Book One. Some of you have already speculated that maybe this means there will be some, but not all, of the tertiary material in these books (like just the Kyle parts of a REBELS issue), which I hope isn't the case; I feel books that DC's done this with, like the ye old Batman: Murderer/Fugitive books, read very choppily. I'm hoping it's just a turn of phrase, or in the case of Invisibles and Sandman Mystery Theatre, it simply means these issues have been previously collected but it's a "re-cut" in terms of where the collections begin and end.

Let's take a look at the full list:

[Be among the first to get news like this by following Collected Editions on Facebook and Twitter.]

Note that all of this information is subject to change before publication. Not all links may yet be functional.

Even as we expect some conflating of post-Crisis and New 52 continuities once Rebirth comes to a head, books like this suggest to me that this Justice League origin is going to remain canon, including the fact that the lineup matches the movies.

Among a couple of previously-cancelled trades on this list, here's the Anarky collection again, including Detective Comics #608-609, Batman Chronicles #1, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #40-41, Anarky #1-8. This is plenty "complete," though of course all appearances would include a Robin annual, among other things here and there.

This is literally probably the collection I get asked about most, Peter David's Atlantis Chronicles miniseries that predated David's four-year Aquaman run. Really, really excited to see this see print. My hope is that a new printing of Time and Tide will follow, and from there collections of David's Aquaman series.

It's wild to see "Waterbearer Vol. 2"; the first volume was released in 2004, over ten years ago. Given that DC has started releasing the Will Pfeifer/Patrick Gleason issues with #15 of this series, and Waterbearer Vol. 1 ended with issue #4, let's call this #5-14 (probably best to end it all in one volume, since Rick Veitch's run wasn't super-well-received). Now I want to see new collections of Kurt Busiek's Sword of Atlantis.

Issues #7-11 and "stories from" Batgirl Annual #1. I didn't know the annual had multiple stories, but as my sense is that most of the annual leads into something that will take place in the Supergirl series, maybe there's a Batgirl-centric backup.

There's a word going around these solicitations; apparently "these hard-to-find 1970s tales featuring Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl, are now re-cut and collected in their entirety," whatever "re-cut" means in this context.

Tony Laplume, this one's for you. Seriously, Tomasi and Gleason are a great team, and their Batman and Robin run deserves it's own whole collection, and will probably read more cohesively that way, too. This is said to be Vol. 1, collecting issues #1-20; if so, that stops in the middle of Requiem for Damian, basically bisecting the series.

Feels a little bit like scraping the barrel for villains with this one, but despite a promo image that shows the New 52 Joker's Daughter, the solicitation talks about her working with the Teen Titans (and being Two-Face's daughter?), so there ought be some classic Duela Dent material here. I wouldn't mind seeing the recent special by Marguerite Bennett included though, just for completeness.

Spoiler alert ... apparently the next Batman story after I Am Bane is a flashback to a battle between the Joker and the Riddler after Zero Year. This is supposed to collect issues #25-32, which leaves a gap from issue #18 or #20 in the previous volume to #24 here. Issues #21-22 are the "Button" crossover with Flash; #23-24 seem to be "I Am Bane" aftermath stories that'll hopefully be collected here or there.

Issues #13-24 and the Annual #1, which a little awkwardly are mostly Knightfall tie-in issues, though in a variety of self-contained arcs (starring both Bruce Wayne and Jean-Paul Valley). The annual is a Bloodlines book introducing Joe Public, who also appears in one of the regular issues.

This is issue #0, #24-34, and the Annual #2. I appreciate the completeness, but also a bit awkwardly, a lot of this is still parts of Knightsend, a Zero Hour tie-in, and then parts of Prodigal. It's all legitimately by Alan Grant, but I'm not sure how it'll read issue-by-issue in trade.

I mean, what kind of wonderful world do we live in where we're even getting collections of as deep a 1990s dive as Jim Balent's Catwoman series, with writing by Jo Duffy, Doug Moench, and Chuck Dixon? Lots of Knightfall material in this first one, plus Zero Hour tie-ins.

Got to say, if I'd already spent $75 on the DC Rebirth Omnibus, only to have another one come out that collected the same stuff plus the Justice League of America Rebirth specials, Batwoman, Super Sons, and the DC Rebirth Holiday Special for $99, I might be a little miffed. Of course, if you held off on the omnibus the first time around, all the more content for you now.

Deadman: Love After Death #1-2 and Exorcism #1-2, by Mike Baron and Kelley Jones. That's fine as it goes, but I'm pretty sure Jones did some Batman work with Deadman, with Doug Moench, that might've been nice for this collection too.

This has been cancelled and resolicited a couple times; I'd really like to see these Marv Wolfman Deathstroke collections continue, and I have a soft spot for "Nuclear Winter," so hopefully it makes it this time. Issues #14-23 and Annual #2.

The second Power Girl, Tanya Spears, hasn't been written very well in the DC You Teen Titans, and I'm very eager to see how and why Christopher Priest is using her over in the Rebirth Deathstroke. Collects issues #12-17.

The second Young Animal Doom Patrol collection, which the solicitation says collects issues #1-6, but we can be pretty sure that's not right. Twice the solicitation mentions that Young Animal "bridges the gap between the DC Universe and Vertigo."

Collects issues #83-94, including the "Reckless Youth" story that introduced Impulse Bart Allen, a Zero Hour tie-in ahead of "Terminal Velocity," and an appearance by Bloodlines's Argus (every character is someone's favorite).

Totally deserved. Collects Grayson #1-20, the Secret Origins #8 story, the Annuals #1-3, the Futures End story, and Robin War #1-2. I envy those who'll be reading it for the first time in this format; what a great ride.

Fantastic -- this finishes up Mike Grell's Green Arrow run with issues #73-80, plus the origin miniseries The Wonder Year. If this finishes out, then sometimes we do get nice things. I'd like to see DC keep on with this at least through issue #100, with issues by Alan Grant, Kevin Dooley, Doug Moench, and Chuck Dixon, if not continuing on to Dixon's Connor Hawke run.

As with the Karl Kesel Superboy collection below, the solicitation calls this a "a new, re-cut graphic novel series." and I'm wondering what that means. Anyway, this collects Green Lantern #51-60, REBELS #1, New Titans #116, and Guy Gardner: Warrior #27-28, which is the main series plus direct crossover issues. A good part of this has not been collected before, and ties into Zero Hour.

The Karl Kesel/Terry Dodson Harley Quinn series didn't make as much a splash as the New 52 series, but it has been totally collected. This new collection series starts over, collecting issue #1-9 of 38.

This looks to be the entire contents of the four previous Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus books, at $150. The original hardcovers were $50 per, so that's a bargain (aside from being a great story and a historical gem).

All right, so we recently lost the Justice League: Breakdowns collection, but then here's a new JLI omnibus. This collects as much as the first five hardcover/paperback Justice League International collections (the main series through issue #30 and Justice League Europe #1-6, minus an issue of Suicide Squad), so insult to injury over that whole switch to paperback thing, but yay that these are being collected again and here's hoping there's more collections of International and Europe to come.

Author is listed as Gerry Conway, and the solicitation says "The complete adventures of Aquaman leading the Justice League of America into action are collected here in this oversize omnibus graphic novel!" and "The 'Detroit Era' of the Justice League finally have their adventures collected in their entirety for the first time ever!" No contents listed, but at 800 pages, it would be great if this really was complete, one and done.

No contents, but the creators are listed as Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Grant Morrison, Gardner Fox, and Gerry Conway, among others. The big draw for movie-interested fans is this is 168 pages for just $9.99.

DC just now cancelled a Legion Lost: The Complete Saga collection (not, I don't think, for the first time), which collected Abnett and Lanning's Legion of Super-Heroes #122-125, Legionnaries #79-81, and Legion Lost #1-12. This is almost the exact same thing minus Legion Lost. Pulling for it to finally make it to publication this time.

Continuing the adventures of the Legion of Super-Heroes rebooted by Mark Waid and company after Zero Hour. If this volume collects as much as the last one was supposed to, it should go into a crossover with Karl Kesel's Superboy and an Underworld Unleashed tie-in.

We're probably overdue, especially in this day and age of Harley Quinn specials, for a comprehensive collection of Lobo material, the Harley Quinn of the 1980s. Starts out with Lobo #1-4, Lobo Paramilitary Special #1, Lobo's Back #1-4, Lobo: Blazing Chain of Love #1, and Lobo: Infanticide #1-4, coming in January 2018(!).

This collection of Marv Wolfman's Night Force #1-14 plus the backup story from New Teen Titans #21 was solicited and cancelled back in 2011-2012 when there was a revival series; hopefully it fares better this time.

This next collection of the Chuck Dixon series is supposed to reprint issues #19-33, including tie-ins to Underworld Unleashed, Contagion, and Legacy, and appearances by the Bat-family, Spoiler Stephanie Brown, Wildcat Ted Grant, and Green Arrow Connor Hawke.

Issues #37-48, so "The Mist" (tie-in with James Robinson's Starman), "Phantom of the Fair," and "The Blackhawk." We're not quite at Sandman Mystery Theatre material that hasn't been previously collected (issues #53-70), but close.

I'd have thought all the Smallville comics were collected by now, but apparently not. What seemed like a fun idea at the time has more or less fizzled, I think, but I give DC credit for finishing out the collections.

Couldn't be more excited to finally see the original "Kon-El" Superboy series (aka "The Kid") getting collected. This is issues #0-11, so both the Worlds Collide Milestone crossover and also the Zero Hour tie-in issue, just before Kesel teams Superboy with a proto-Suicide Squad. With Knockout, King Shark, and more. I'm just wondering what the solicitation means by "these now-legendary tales from the 1990s from writer Karl Kesel are recut ..."

The solicitation for Book Four of the Peter David series is the same as the solicitation for Book Three, but if we figure about ten-fifteen issues, there's a crossover with Young Justice, a tie-in to Day of Judgment, and appearances by Zauriel and the Parasite.

No contents listed. Curiously, the last collection of the 2000s Supergirl series collected up to issue #33, right before the Sterling Gates issues, which were newly reprinted on their own. Now, I don't mind an "omnibus"-type collection of Gates's work, but I wonder if this'll leap over that and go to issues #60-67 by James Peaty, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and Nick Spencer, which were never before collected.

Looks to be the paperback of the previously-released hardcover, being Brave and the Bold team-ups with Starman Ted Knight, Deadman, Creeper, Hawk and Dove, Black Canary, and more. Art is by Jim Aparo, Joe Staton, and Norm Breyfogle. Also included is the Detective Comics #500 story "To Kill a Legend," and Brennert's alt-history one-shot, the first labeled Elseworlds, Batman: Holy Terror.

Collects Titans #11, Teen Titans #8, Deathstroke #19, and Teen Titans Annual #1. Of course inquiring minds want to know if we'll see these in their individual trades as well (like "Night of the Monster Men," maybe not in the paperbacks but collected in the hardcovers).

Fairly recent material, this is the DC Rebirth Holiday Special, the Rebirth Batman Annual #1, and the Rebirth Harley Quinn #10. I wouldn't mind a collection of the various recent era-themed DC holiday specials, like DCU Infinite Holiday Special and so on.

No contents here either, but the first volume stopped just short of the "Judgment Day" crossover between the Justice League books, so here's hoping this includes the Justice League America, Task Force, and International issues, too. Of course, if this keeps going, there's not much to collect before this series starts to get in to the Gerard Jones issues.

123 comments:

First of all, Legion by DnA Vol. 1! Am I dreaming? I'll pre-order it as soon as humanly possible, and while I'm glad it will collect all issues DnA wrote before Legion Lost, it seems the hypothetical vol. 2 will end up being just a reprint of the Legion Lost collection. Hopefully that won't hurt sales too much, but I think they should just make vol. 1 over 500 pages long and add Legion Lost to it.

JLI Omnibus! Including stuff scripted by that guy who won't be named!

Superboy by Kesel and Grummett! Another '90s gem DC was taking too long to collect.

Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner! I knew this was coming, but it's good to see it won't skip the crossover with New Titans, Rebels and Guy Gardner.

Catwoman by Jim Balent! He certainly deserves to have his name in the title, considering how long he pencilled the book as it went through many writers.

Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare Deluxe! They should have collected it in the first JLA TPB, since it sets up Morrison's World War Three arc, but I'm just glad to have this important story back in print.

Knightfall Omnibus Vol. 2! And as expected, Knightquest: The Search will finally be collected.

Atlantis Chronicles Deluxe! May this be the first step toward collecting Peter David's Aquaman run.

All this plus new volumes of Waid's Flash (vol. 3 should collect issues #80-94 instead of #83-94, by the way), Ostrander's Suicide Squad, Grell's Green Arrow (finishing his run, two annuals and Shado mini excepted), Dixon's Robin, PAD's Supergirl, Vado's JLA and other stuff we thought would never be collected!

And the weirdest collection announced has to be Aquaman: The Waterbearer Vol. 2, the sequel to a TPB that was published all the way back in 2003, collecting the beginning of Veitch's run. Couldn't they just collect his 12 issues and Aquaman Secret Files 2003 in a single volume?

The sheer amount of cancelled but re-solicited or reconstituted material on this list is really surprising but heartening. God bless whomever's such an advocate of Abnett and Lanning's Legion work that the Legion Lost collection just got cancelled, and now they're re-doing it in different format, starting a little earlier. I'm excited for it for us but I really want it out for whomever keeps putting it up, too.

Yeah, calling that Waterbearer Vol. 2 is also wonderful. Never say never. I hope it makes it to print.

At first I was surprised they split it in two volumes, but then I remembered the three annuals and the two Robin Rises specials. Tomasi and Gleason also did a 3-parter ("Dark Knight Vs. White Knight) for the pre-Flashpoint series that I think should be included in the first omnibus.

Literally the collection I get asked most about and one of the first I can remember being mentioned here. My short list would be getting real short if it wasn't for the fact Superman: Man of Tomorrow got cancelled.

Maybe DC cancelled that S:MOT collection because someone is finally realizing we need a series of Omnibus collections of the Post-Crisis Superman, starting with "Man of Steel". I can't imagine what in the world is making them hold off on doing that. It's seminal work, and many of the trades are out of print. It absolutely deserves a more deluxe treatment.

We do need that. And I'm all in for it, soon as some of the Superman: Man of Tomorrow-type material is collected. Despite that some of the Man of Steel volumes are out of print, I just couldn't get behind going back and printing all over again issues that have already been collected once (even if out of print) before moving forward with issues that have never been reprinted before. Just my take on it.

I'm surprised that Tomasi's B&R (which I LOVE) got an omni before Morrison's or Snyder's Batman. I hope they include the three issues of the first series that Tomasi and Gleason did. Hell, I hope they include the Blackest Night mini Tomasi did as well!

They're starting TPBs of Walter Simonson's Orion, so I might just stick to those instead of getting the omnibus.

Also, JLA/Power Rangers... I'll have some comments about that in a few months. Plus now that we've had JLA/Power Rangers and New Avengers/Transformers to join JLA/Avengers, the cycle needs to be completed with Power Rangers/Transformers.

I bought the Orion Omnibus despite really disliking the format (too heavy/bulky, hard to read comfortably) but I bought it because I figured it would never ever get printed again, or in a preferable format. Whoops.

It's a shame there are no Deluxe Editions of Green Lanterns and Deathstroke from Rebirth. Hal Jordan & TGLC gets one even though it sells worse than GLs. Do you think it might come later, or should I forget it? ('Forget it Jake... it's tpb town.')

I would be surprised if at least Green Lanterns didn't also get a deluxe, and frankly, I haven't seen anything to indicate DC doesn't plan to deluxe all the first round Rebirth titles at some point. They're all at issue #12 by now at least, right?

Green Lanterns' 19th issue just came out this week, and it was one of Rebirth's first titles. What's really puzzling is Action Comics is already at the second Deluxe collection, as you wrote above, but still no word about Green Lanterns.

I wonder if the phrase "re-cut" on Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner trade means it only includes the parts of the issues of REBELS, New Teen Titans, and Guy Gardner: Warrior that actually involve Kyle. I wonder if if the entire issue is not reprinted. DC has done that before. The Batman Murderer and Fugitive trades were edited and only used parts of the Birds of Prey and Batgirl issues.

As for the Superboy trade maybe it condenses the Milestone "World's Collide" crossover to just the stuff that included Superboy. If I remember correctly the Superman books that were part of the Milestone crossover were also engaged with their own "Fall of Metropolis" multi-part storyline.

I hope that's not what it means. It sounds good in theory but the books read really choppy, like a scene seems to end but on the next page you're back on the same scene. Someone who's that interested in all of this won't mind, I don't think, a glimpse at what else was going on in those issues. It'd be like how they did the recent Robin War trade and I thought it read fine.

I hope they will include Emerald Twilight (#48-50) as those are Marz' first issues und include Kyle's first appearance.Also, what about issue #0? It came out between #55 and 56, which are both included here.

If my quick and dirty skim of the GCD is correct, after Legion Lost, there was Legion Worlds with six issues and then 33 DnA-written issues of The Legion. If DC really is going to collect it seven issues at a time it will take a while to get through all that.

That Legion run doesn't end as well as it began, I don't think. And some of it was collected once upon a time. If I were DC I'd finally get these "Legion of the Damned" and Legion Lost issues collected and be done with it.

Though Legion Lost has been collected before, and Legion of the Damned was in a DC Comics Presents book. It's everything else (Widening Rifts and Legion Worlds and beyond) that gets me excited, so hopefully we get at least *some* decent amount of it.

Justice League of America Annual 2Justice League of America 233Justice League of America 234Justice League of America 235Justice League of America 236Justice League of America 237Justice League of America 238Justice League of America 239Justice League of America 240Justice League of America 241Justice League of America 242Justice League of America 243Infinity Inc. 19Justice League of America 244Justice League of America Annual 3Justice League of America 245Justice League of America 246Justice League of America 247Justice League of America 248Justice League of America 249Justice League of America 250Justice League of America 251Justice League of America 252Justice League of America 253Justice League of America 254Justice League of America 255Justice League of America 256Justice League of America 257Legends 1 (pgs 17-22)Legends 2 (pgs 5-9)Justice League of America 258Justice League of America 259Justice League of America 260Justice League of America 261DC Retroactive: Justice League of America - The '80s

I haven't re-read the Abnett and Lanning Legion run in many years, but my memories of it are very positive. Aside from the "Legion Lost" miniseries, which was collected in both HC and TP, the only other part of their run that was collected (in TP) was the "Foundations" arc from Legion #s 25-30.

Interestingly, the description for Legion by DnA vol. 1 actually fits a book that would begin with the start of the regular series _after_ "Legion Lost" and "Legion Worlds": "After finding their way back to Earth after being stranded in a distant galaxy..." So even if the issue numbers are correct, and this book covers the material before "Lost," the description suggests that thought is already being given to continuing the trades into the regular series.

I guess since Legion Lost has received a collection (all be it some years ago), DC would be within their rights to leapfrog it and have the next collection pick up after that. That would be weird, but then again part of me would rather see un-collected issues be collected than necessarily worry about completeness to that extent.

Love that you name-checked me in the Tomasi/Gleason Batman and Robin Omnibus listing. I am indeed very happy they're doing this. Even though I already have every collection (except the last one, so far, which I don't feel bad about because I do have the original issues already), these will be must-buys, too. As someone else mentioned above, it would be awesome if the collection also included the pre-New 52 material as well.

I originally discovered the series by reading multiple issues at the same time. I don't think I would've latched onto it if I'd read a random issue or collection. It's a cumulative effect, which is rare in mainstream comics. Plenty of writers aim for long-term storytelling, but few of them are as inventive and adaptable as Tomasi proved himself to be here.

Very super excited for the Supergirl Trade Paperbacks , Collected Editions and Omnibuses coming out!!! You can tell because of the success of The CW Supergirl TV Show is the main reason we are getting all those issues reprinted and collected. I do wonder though if Vol 4. of Supergirl (2005-2011) is going to be collecting the Sterling Gates run or issues #60-#67? Can't wait to get all of these soon !!!

Love, love, love those Sterling Gates books, and I don't think they get the credit they deserve for being the basis of the Supergirl show, but I'd as soon DC move as quickly as possible to issues that haven't been collected yet rather than re-collecting issues that have.

Another question for you -- would you message me at the Yahoo address or on FB?

For collection reasons excited for the Grayson Omnibus, even though I already have everything in monthly form. Hoping they decide to include NIghtwing #31 in it, which is basically a prologue for the serie.

Yeah, though I thought that was one of the weakest issues of the "series"; it made me very hesitant to read Grayson before I did and then loved it. I'd as soon start with the grand issue #1 train caper.

"Batman: Shadow of the Bat (...) I appreciate the completeness, but also a bit awkwardly, a lot of this is still parts of Knightsend, a Zero Hour tie-in, and then parts of Prodigal. It's all legitimately by Alan Grant, but I'm not sure how it'll read issue-by-issue in trade."

It's more like pointlessness, and I don't appreciate it at all. This batch of issues is not going to read bad at all for the most part, actually, because Knightfall tie-in is just a three part story with Scarecrow, Knightquest was just a status-quo and only at the end SotB does the Abattoir story with Moench's Batman, two parts of Prodigal are stand-alone, and so are Zero Hour tie-ins. But it's a safe bet most who are interested in this have all of it already. They could have collected SotB in three volumes around the Bat-events: before Knightfall, between Prodigal/Troika and Contagion, and between Legacy and Cataclysm. Or they could have collected all the issue ALONG with various tie-ins, mostly about Arkham and the villains, penned by Grant, making it worthwhile. But DC did neither, so I don't know why I'm supposed to buy this thing.

And their insistence of including every issue no matter how much it's involved in the cross-over makes their books an annoying read. Again, these might read better than not, but for example later there's Contagion. Ooh, a big 10 or 11 part story. Except, if you're already including SotB #48-49, throw Batman #529 between them, and you have a mini-arc inside the bigger cross-over. And of course there's always the option of including the pages from the other issues to make it even smoother. There's so many books they could just make better than they will be. Balent's Catwoman should have Batman #503-504 and then for her involvment in Knightsend (parts of) another two so the story doesn't have a hole in it. Robin collections, which are going through Knightfall trilogy at the moment and already there's one book that has an issue starting in the middle of Bat-Azrael killing Robin. Pages from Zero Hour #4 to continue from Flash #94 at the end of this Waid's volume.

And there's Superboy which in this 12-issue book goes through two cross-overs and Zero Hour. But it's nice how it follows from Return of Superman... except it doesn't, because either that or this one should have Adventures of SUperman #506. It was bad planning on DC'a part because Return of Superman should have not skipped Man of Steel #27 and included AoS #506, Action Comics #693 and MoS #28, which finish the subplots of and send off all the surviving replacement Supermen to their new series.

Yes on Adventures of Superman #506; I was thinking that would start the Superboy trade off right (also, "Captain Kirk said that!").

But y'know, to each their own, and I totally get what you're saying how these could read better "re-cut" (as the word of the day goes) and so on. But at the end of the day these were individual series, and they came out issue by issue, and I don't mind so much having to jump book to book like I did with the individual knowledge, so long as I can feel secure that I "have it all" (a little Larfleeze coming out here). It would drive me bazonkers to have a Shadow of the Bat collection series that didn't collect all the issues, and sticking an issue of Batman or something in there is only going to make it take longer for the collection series to end.

So I'm satisfied with this, though I do totally get your point. I was not happy to have two of our parts of "Lonely Place of Dying" in the third New Teen Titans Omnibus. I'm trying to figure what the difference is.

And maybe these were individual series, but those are books. Why would I want to switch between the books? Why should I even have all the necessary books? Why would I want to buy imcomplete stories?

Sorry, but "it's okay for it to be incomplete" will never sound anything else than dumb to me. Not seeing any good arguements for it either: "sticking an issue of Batman or something in there is only going to make it take longer for the collection series to end" - uhm, putting one or two issues in the book makes what exactly longer? There's no additional volume.

Shadow of the Bat vol. 4, if it comes to that, will have #42, which has its epilogue in Batman Chronicles #2, and Secrets of the Universe with part 1 and 3 in #43 and #44, and part 2 in Catwoman #26. Do you want to leave those non-SotB issues out? And is there much difference between including them, and adding a bridge between two parts of Contagion that will be included anyway?

I do see your point. What I was saying is that sticking an issue of Batman in the Shadow collections -- which might bump an issue of Shadow -- might make it take longer for them to finish collecting Shadow (into the hypothetical Vol. 5, Vol. 6, etc.). But hey, I didn't recall that Shadow crossed over with Catwoman like that, so I've learned something.

They are doing it in 300 page books 12 issues at the time when they could have been doing it in 500 page books if they chose too. Moving faster towards the finish line is not the most important thing to them. It's going to be at least seven volumes at this pace anyway. I prefer to believe that adding something extra even to all those 300 page books would not resulted in yet another volume, because that would be ridiculous.

I was under the impression these Flash by Geoff Johns paperbacks were simply mapping the omnibuses and then they'd stop, so not the Barry Allen stuff. Nothing wrong with collecting it, I guess, and the Final Crisis and Blackest Night material leans heavily on the Wally run, so maybe not so bad; it all just kind of implodes by the end.

I'll settle for all of "The Search" but Knightfall would really be complete if they'd include "Troika."

I wouldn't be shocked if we see a Geoff Johns BA Flash omnibus sometime after GJ Flash 5. Then a year later, we'll get the first of two or three trades. Given that we have Teen Titans, JSA, and Hawkman by Geoff Johns all starting soon, I get the impression he *might* be a popular writer ;)

I hope they end Knightfall with Troika, it puts a cap on Prodigal (otherwise like the 2012 trades it just ends with Batman in the shadows saying "time for some changes" that seems anti-climatic after everything)

Totally agree on the Waid collections, I want these ASAP (and then some Baron/Messner-Loebs collections to complete the whole Wally West Flash series in TPB)

The JLI omnibus seems nice but I already have the trades so there is no real reason to get it. I also have no faith that there will be a volume 2 of this.

No new Chuck Dixon Birds of Prey collection. Not sure if DC has stopped with this or maybe we will get something next year.

Nice to see the Kyle Rayner GL collections starting. I hope the 90's Hal Jordan run can be restarted in a year or two.

I thought the recently cancelled Superman Man of Tomorrow collection would show back up in paperback form. Maybe next year.

I know Batman is the money maker at DC and everything in the catalog is going to be published and republished, but at some point as a customer I just have to stop buying Batman collections. That saying, if they collect pre Crisis Batman including Batman #400 - I am all in.

For material like the JLI omnibus, which I already have, it will come down to what all is in my order. If it is a light month, then I would upgrade for sure. If my order is full of stuff I do not already have, then I will not go over budget to upgrade or not get stuff I do not have.

The exceptions are if I am upgrading material from a showcase or essential. Going to color makes an upgrade worth it.

I may talk myself into the JLI omnibus because the paper quality should be much better than the trades.

You should buy Vol. 1 if you want there to be any hope of Vol.2 - I have the trades (two copies of that Beginning trade) and all the single issues of JLI. =I'm buying this as I want to so badly for every issue of JLI to be collected.

I check out this blog pretty much everyday, even when there aren't new posts, just to see if there are some interesting discussions going on in the comment sections. I actually found out about DC's upcoming releases by reading this post when it was still incomplete, and then I went straight to the catalog at Edelweiss's website before posting my impressions here.

I kniw I don't quite qualify, but I tend to check here everyday to see if any news came up. I saw the edelweiss solicts and checked here. I know you always have a deeper, better understanding of the contents, and look out for the collector, in terms of story quality and double dipping.

Joker's Daughter's got a pretty long DC history, not in the current New 52 form but as as 1970s and so on Teen Titans character. I do think this is stretching the purview of these Batman: Arkham collections, but I'm curious to see what they collect here nonetheless.

On knightfall omnibus, It does make sense to include Robin#1 since Detective comics #668 ended on a cliffhanger that continued on Robin #1, that specific issue wasn’t included in the knightquest trade.

You may be surprised that Hush is 15 years old - but what surprises me is that they expect us to pay a $50 cover price for a Deluxe edition of 12 issues. The amount and quality of "extra material" is probably a good joke too.

I'm sure the fact that Jim Lee is high up in the company, and will no doubt get a solid royalty bonus from this, has nothing to do with that decision...

This book should have been collected in hardcover a long time ago, rather than the two super-slim 6-issue hardcovers they initially released. Price gouging is not the way to do things right this time around.

There were a couple of two-volume hardcover sets at that time -- Superman for Tomorrow was another one. Not that they don't do that any more (Justice League: Darkseid War, for instance), but I'm glad it's not so prevalent (we got Omega Men in one volume).

The Legend of Wonder Woman is the recent digital-first series by Renae De Liz.

As I understand it, Absolute WildC.A.T.s will collect 15 issues of the original series (#1-13, #31 and a short story from #50, all of which were pencilled by Lee) plus Marc Silvestri's Cyberforce #1-3 (which crossed over with WildC.A.T.s #5-7), the second issue of the X-Men crossover (the one Lee pencilled), the centerfold from WildC.A.T.s Adventures #1 (also by Lee), and the first and only issue of the Wildcats series Lee was going to do with Grant Morrison. All in all, a very Jim Lee-centric collection.

I think a Superman by Byrne omnibus is a matter of time, but there should be two volumes to cover the whole thing (including the "World of" minis).

Johns's Superman work is a different case because he worked on and off on the Superman books in many different periods, so his stories altogether don't really form a cohesive whole. For instance, his first stint on the Superman books was between Loeb's and Seagle's runs, and almost all of those issues took part in crossovers like "Return to Krypton II", "Ending Battle" and "Lost Hearts". Also, his most recent Superman work was during the New 52, with a vastly different version of the character.

However, I'd be down for an omnibus that covered his Action Comics run from "Last Son" until the first "New Krypton" crossover, plus relevant minis from that period like Legion of 3 Worlds and Secret Origin. And then DC could follow it with a set of omnibi covering the rest of the "New Krypton" storyline.

I'm glad to see the return of the Kyle Rayner TPB. I remember that one being listed for a while on Amazon before switching — even on its Amazon listing, without explanation — to the now-canceled Hal Jordan trade.

And I hope against hope that DC uses the newsprint-y paper for the Kirby Omnibus. That art just doesn't look right on that too-shiny, too-smooth, bright white paper they use!

I am SUPER excited to see the 90s Superboy series get collected in trade. I own all the individual issues but not all of them are in the best shape and I've been wanting to see them collected for years. I wonder if they'll collect his short lived spin-off series, Superboy and the Ravers, as well? One issue from that does tie in to the Meltdown arc written by Ron Marz.

Also excited for the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern run. I'm a 90s kid so he's my GL and I've never been able to get all of his issues/trades.

I will be pre-ordering them both to help the cause. I don't want to see either of them cancelled at the last minute.

I was afraid that they wouldn't collect the last Smallville arc in a trade so I'm relieved that they finally are. I enjoyed season 11 quite a bit and thought it ended on a really strong note and felt like it was also thumbing its nose at DC's penchant for rebooting every few years.

Was the Superman Man of Steel collection the one that was supposed to collect the Triangle era? If so, it breaks my heart to see that cancelled. I was so looking forward to it.-Kon30

If they're going to do it right, Superboy and the Ravers should be in there, no doubt. I mean, if they keep the collection series going long enough, they'll get to issues written by Dan DiDio and Jimmy Palmiotti (that read as a template for Palmiotti's Harley Quinn).

Superman: Man of Tomorrow has been cancelled, yes. It is sad. Hopefully we'll see it back in another form.

No problem, its a really good issue written by Paul Dini. There was also a MOTP comic adaption (along with a Sub-Zero & a Worlds Finest one) that I'm hoping will be included in these trade collections at some point

There's so much exitement here!! First off I can't wait to read the beginnings of Kyle Rayner, and I'm so pumped that they're continuing the Flash by Geoff Johns books. I thought they stopped at 3 and was very nervous. Sad that I find out about the omnibus to JLI after I completed my trade collection of it. Also excited to see more Aquaman love. I just love the fact that DC is reprinting these older issues that might be obscure to most people. I feel like they treat their fans well with trades these days.

Not sure if you noticed with this fine preview, but the Swamp Thing Bronze Age Omni now includes a lot more than the previously announced (I think it was) Swamp Thing 1-24. Looks like we're getting some team-ups with Batman, Superman, plus ST's four issue appearance in the mid-70s Challengers of the Unknown revival (some of which were reprinted in one of the Deadman editions), plus the first 18 issues of Saga of the Swamp Thing plus it's first annual. Whew! That's gonna be a big book!

The solicitation bills it as an omnibus (so, a "big book" collecting a lot of issues) and not "deluxe" (over-sized in actual dimensions), but I guess we won't know for sure until we see it. I do think a "compendium" version of this is pretty cool.

JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS: This is, for me, a dream come true. Back when the other four volumes were printed I didn't had the opportunity to get them, and later, the prices were too high for me to get. Now all these stories IN ONE VOLUME?!? I was expeting the reimpressions of the volumes in the 100th Anniversary of Kirby's Birth, but this... Is way better than anything I imagined! This will be MINE!

ORION BY WALT SIMONSON VOL. 1. Well, this might not come much as a surprise considering my top choice here. Does it? :)

AQUAMAN: THE ATLANTIS CHRONICLES. I've been waiting years to read this story! Now all collected in one editions is perfect!

NEW TEEN TITANS VOL. 8. I've bought all the volumes so far of this collection. Is a given.

BATMAN '66 MEETS WONDER WOMAN '77.Unless I could get the past issues right now, this is a mini I regret not getting on time. I would love to see this story, although I don't know the details, animated as it was done the Batman and Robin '66 animation recently.

It's pretty strange how DC always omits it from collections, I think it was only reprinted once in the nineties. I guess they may think Long Halloween made it redundant, althought I personally think current continuity is no reason to avoid reprinting good comics.

I am so excited to see that DC is FINALLY reprinting Peter Davis's The Atlantis Chronicles! But is it too much to ask that "Time & Tide" be included as part of this new "deluxe" edition? I always considered Time & Tide to be the unofficial "Book 8" of The Atlantis Chronicles. Plus, it connects the history of Atlantis to Aquaman himself. I realize this may increase the final price of the book, but I would gladly pay it--and I would recommend anyone else do the same.

Just going by timing, I might think Time & Tide would be more appropriate for the start of a collection series of PAD's Aquaman series proper, but six of one, half dozen of the other as long as it happens.

Also also strongly weighing whether to preorder that Swamp Thing Bronze Age Omnibus. It's literally everything before Alan Moore (which does include some good stuff). I bought the "Roots of the Swamp Thing" trade a few years back, but this certainly looks promising.

Even though the Swamp Thing team-ups are kinda "meh," I always found the regular ST series from the early 70s and then the Pasko scripted Saga of the ST series to be fairly good storytelling judged by the day they appeared. You'd probably enjoy it a good bit. Plus, the Saga issues had art by Tom Yeats, who was/is a great artist for this kind of work.

I really appreciate that you write notes on so many of them instead of just posting a big list of links. Thank you as always for doing that -- and for responding to so many replies as well!

I have a question for you (and everyone really) about these Rebirth Suicide Squad collections. If I want to read the ones with Jim Lee art as well as understand their upcoming crossover with the Justice League, which issues do I need?

I looked at the contents on Amazon and I am hoping they are not correct because no matter what combination of hardcover or paperback I pick, I am missing stuff. Since I currently own none of them, does anyone have any recommendations for me?

If I buy the two hardcovers,https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1401274218/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DERandhttps://smile.amazon.com/Justice-League-Suicide-Squad-America/dp/1401272266/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1490040746&sr=1-5&keywords=suicide+squad+rebirth

then I'll have issues 0-10 plus the Harley special and the JL stuff.

If I buy the two paperbacks,https://smile.amazon.com/Suicide-Squad-Vol-Black-Rebirth/dp/1401269818/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1490040704&sr=1-1&keywords=suicide+squadandhttps://smile.amazon.com/Suicide-Squad-Vol-Going-Rebirth/dp/1401270972/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1490040746&sr=1-2&keywords=suicide+squad+rebirth

then I'll have 0-12 (so two further issues than the hardcovers) but missing 5-6? What's going on there? As well as missing the HQ and JL stuff. So I have to get one hardcover anyway to get the VS 1-6?

JL 12-13 are already collected in the Rebirth vol 3 I've pre-ordered so that's a double dip no matter what. Sounds like I'll be stuck in a similar situation with SS.

My guess is that I should just order the two hardcovers, not read the first one to arrive until the second one is released, and hope issues 11 and 12 are not related or not drawn by Lee?

It's something new that DC is trying. Whenever a crossover happens in a title it seems like they're now removing those issues from each individual title and putting them into its own trade so that the original title wouldn't A) be interrupted abruptly, and B) so that you don't have to double dip

I'd say if you want the actual full run then the HC are the way to go.

I was just trying to figure this out myself, but I think the answer is that Suicide Squad, with its backups and so on, has changed from how it was originally solicited to be collected. The first volume collects issues #1-4, we know that, but I'm almost positive the second collection isn't issues #7-12, or at least does collect issues #5-6. There's no reason for that book to omit #5-6; the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad material isn't until #8-10.

Additionally, someone suggested to me elsewhere that the JL vs SS material is just the back-up stories of issues #8-10 and not the main story. So it's equally possible that the Suicide Squad paperbacks could collect issues #8-10 main story and the JL vs SS hardcover could collect the backup stories, and there wouldn't be double-dipping even though it's the "same" issue.

Much as I advocate pre-ordering, these books are sure things, and I for one would wait until they've been released and we're sure what's in them before picking them up.

Thank you, guys. I'll hold off at least until the listings get updated and I'll lean towards the two hardcovers. I looked up each issue on comicbookdb.com and it seems Jim Lee was only involved through issue 8. I would hope the "deluxe" edition would include the backup stories at that price. If anyone has read issues 11-12 and wants to comment on their value for my situation please feel free.

If you're only interested in the Jim Lee issues of Suicide Squad, just get the first two TPBs or the first Deluxe HC. Amazon's listing for Vol. 2 is wrong, and it will actually collect issues #5-8 and the April Fool's Special. I'm assuming the backup from #8 will be omitted, since it's a prelude to JL vs SS and will be collected along with it.

It looks like there will be no double-dipping with the JL vs SS HC. Issues #9-10 have no backups, and they're a flashback and an epilogue to the crossover, respectively.

Also, Justice League #12-13 will only be collected along with the crossover. Justice League Vol. 3 will skip those issues and collect #14-19.

Then the 2nd volume will have the final 26 issues through the end of breakdowns, the first 8? Justice League Quarterlys and probably Formerly Known as the Justice League and I cant believe its not the Justice League.

That's a smaller volume, So maybe include Justice League: Generation Lost or something like that?

Title has apparently been changed to Justice League by Giffen and DeMatteis, so it'll stop well before the upcoming Wonder Woman and the Justice League trades; it'll stop just before the first Superman and the Justice League trade, as a matter of fact. Whether the JLQs and the later miniseries will get in there is also suspect, I think.

The solicitation copy is definitely wrong, since it's impossible to fit that many issues in a single omnibus volume. The page count (1,080) suggests it will collect exactly what the Edelweiss website says it will, plus Suicide Squad #13.

What I find interesting is the name change to Justice League by Giffen and DeMatteis, which opens up the possibility that "Formerly Known as the Justice League", "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League", the Retro Active one-shot and the "Mousebusters" short story from JLA 80-Page Giant #1 could be collected in the last volume. And the first 4 issues of JLQ should be there, since they feature stories by Giffen and DeMatteis.

About Me

Interested in advertising on Collected Editions, want to sponsor a pitch for your graphic novel, like to contribute a review, or just want to chat about trade paperbacks? Send an email to collectededitions at yahoo d-o-t com.